Abbas appoints Hamas member to PA government

The New Fatah government of the Palestinian Authority is not quite as Hamas free as billed. Arutz Sheva reports:

(IsraelNN.com) As Prime Minister Ehud Olmert continues to pledge his support for the newly formed PA shadow-government set up by Fatah, Hamas is looking forward to inheriting the aid.

Fatah, which was trounced by Hamas in PA elections, has taken advantage of its being violently expelled from Gaza to claim that it has established a Hamas-free government in Judea and Samaria, which both the Israel government and the international community has quickly embraced and begun to fund.

A prominent Hamas man from the Gaza, however, was appointed Tuesday as Social Welfare and Agriculture Minister in Fatah’s unilaterally declared government Tuesday. Sheikh Mahmoud Habbash said he agreed to be a part of Fatah’s new PA government because it is his "national duty at this very sensitive and difficult stage."

I think I finally understand the underlying rationale for Hamas and Fatah security forces to be wearing identical ski-masks.